Chapter 389 Beneficiary

In China, although the media reports were already close to dawn, the news of Gu Wei and others' return still attracted the attention of many people.

Due to the time difference between China and the United States, "2012" will be officially released in major theaters in North America after midnight in China.

"Director Han, um, I just got off the plane. The box office is being watched by people from Ryder and Warner, so there's no problem."

"Boss Wang, forget about the midnight snack..."

"... "

Gu Wei, who had just arrived at the villa, received several calls. Looking at the vibrating phone, Gu Wei couldn't help but smile bitterly at Liu Yifei, and then turned off the phone directly, out of sight, out of mind.

"This isn't a good idea," the young lady said worriedly.

"It's okay. They'll understand if they can't get through."

Gu Wei chuckled, after running back and forth for a month, even he was a little tired at the moment. Now that he was back home, he must take a good rest, and as he said this he glanced at the young lady.

Hearing this, the young lady blushed and rolled her eyes at him.

On the other side, Ye Ning, Yu Dong and others also shook their heads when they heard the notification that their phones were turned off. "Well, the owner isn't worried, so why should we worry about it?"

...

Meanwhile, North America.

Just after midnight, "2012" was officially released.

Before the movie was released, advertisements, push notifications, and topics related to "2012" were bombarded all over the place and caught people's eyes.

Americans have discovered that when they take the bus, there are hard advertisements at the platform, when they take the subway, there are trailers playing in a loop, and when they take the elevator on their way home or to work, there are also advertisements for "2012."

In the top ten box office cities in North America, there are trailers for "2012" on outdoor LED screens.

As for the Internet, the publicity department under the personal command of Lai De always keeps a close eye on the hot topics related to "2012" and the comments on various rating websites. If any abnormal ratings are found, they must be reported immediately.

Warner, on the other hand, is focusing on distribution, negotiating with major cinema chains on scheduling, as well as the posting of posters in cinemas and the placement of KT boards, all of which have already been agreed upon.

The next morning, when the sun was already high in the sky, Gu Wei finally opened his eyes lazily. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the young lady staring at him with her arms resting on her head.

"Why don't you sleep a little longer?" Gu Wei stroked the young lady's smooth face and spoke gently.

"Oh, I can't sleep because I keep thinking about the box office. How high can the first-day box office be?"

Gu Wei couldn't answer Liu Yifei's question. After all, the data hadn't come out yet, so he couldn't just say anything. "Who cares? Reid will report the box office results as soon as they come out."

At the same time, in the office of Hollywood Rising Star Films, Reid was pacing back and forth nervously.

"Have Warner and Universal sent any data?"

This was the question Reid asked the most today. Although the young secretary felt a little impatient, she still answered with a smile on her face.

After hearing the secretary's answer, Reid waved his hand, and the secretary also left the office with a tactful look.

In the current Hollywood film market, independent film company Rising Star Films is good at production, Warner is strong at distribution, and Universal is very good at hype. The cooperation of the three companies is basically invincible.

It's just like a lion fighting a rabbit, it will do its best. For a movie with such a large investment like "2012", none of the three companies dared to take it lightly. They worked diligently while waiting for the day when the movie would be released.

"2012" has midnight screenings scheduled. On the evening of January 1, at Warner Bros. Cinema and Universal Studios in Los Angeles, audiences started arriving at the theaters after 22 p.m. As for the movie tickets, they were sold out a few days ago.

Except for the major cinemas in Los Angeles, the theaters that arranged midnight shows across the United States were basically packed with people, especially the IMAX theaters, where tickets were absolutely hard to get.

The pre-sale situation had actually been counted long ago, but it hadn't been officially released yet, so Reid was not very sure about it, fearing that something unexpected would happen, and did not dare to be happy too soon.

When the first-day box office results were released at midnight on the morning of November 11, they were reported to Tomorrow's Star Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures, all of which brought out hearty laughter.

$7210 million!
What does this mean? James Cameron's masterpiece "Avatar" only had a box office of 2700 million on the first day. Of course, "Avatar" performed well in the second half, and its good reputation allowed the movie to come from behind and leave the others far behind.

However, this first-day box office result has broken the first-day box office record of 7080 million US dollars set by Gu Wei's other film "Interstellar". Just with this gimmick, as long as the word of mouth does not collapse, the subsequent box office will not be bad.

When the Hollywood media announced the news, the North American film industry was in an uproar.

It’s too damn high, too scary! The first day box office is almost catching up with a quarter of the production cost. Is there any way for people to survive? Is this how big movies make money?

In a conference room at Disney, President Robert Iger, Vice President Thomas and more than a dozen senior executives gathered together, but no one took the initiative to speak and no one knew where to start.

After a long while, Robert said, "Have you heard about the first day box office performance of 2012? It was 7210 million U.S. dollars. What do you think?"

The room was still silent. After a while, someone said, "This data is too unreasonable. Did they falsify the results?"

It is common to falsely report the performance of a movie during its release, but even if it is false, it is not too outrageous. However, the data of "2012" is shocking, which is much higher than the first-day box office of "Avatar" when it was released, and it exceeds the first-day box office of any movie. This is a miracle.

Thomas shook his head and said, "It should be true?" Suddenly, he said with a lingering fear, "Fortunately, our company has no movies released at this stage."

Everyone in the conference room felt the same way and echoed the sentiment. Robert looked at the scene, but he was somewhat bored.

Suddenly he said, "Forget it. Let's not discuss other people's box office results. Let's talk about Disney's development strategy this year. I plan to cooperate with Tomorrow's Star Films to jointly produce the second part of Frozen. Thomas, you will be responsible for discussing the details!"

"Okay, boss!"

The box office of the first "Frozen" was very impressive. Disney had long wanted to cooperate with Gu Wei, but the other party had not given a response. This time Disney took the initiative to negotiate, which certainly did not give an advantage, but for Thomas, the boss's nod was enough.

Unlike other senior executives of the company, Vice President Thomas has always been optimistic about the development of animated films. After all, Hollywood live-action special effects blockbusters require huge investments and take several years to complete. One also has to consider the selection of actors, directors, and the corresponding box office share. When it comes to profits, many blockbusters are not as cost-effective as animated films.

Li Binbin, who has already joined the crew of "Resident Evil 5" for filming, was surrounded by the crowd, and voices of congratulations were heard all around.

Li Binbin was also excited at this time. As soon as the movie box office came out today, she felt that her status in the crew had obviously improved.

Michelle Rodriguez and Sienna Guillory, who were from the same crew, took the rare step of greeting her first, and the two chatted and laughed for a while.

Even the leading actress Milla Jovovich had a smile on her face.

You know, as one of the only four actresses in "Resident Evil 5", the other three were very opposed to Li Binbin before.

Sure enough, no matter where in the entertainment industry, box office represents everything.

Director Paul Anderson is also considering whether to increase Li Binbin's role. After all, the first principle of a commercial film is to consider box office revenue.

The same situation also happened in the crew of "The Expendables 2".

Yu Nan and Li Binbin, the former was recommended by Gu Wei to join the group as the female lead, and the latter had a guest role in "2012".

The two became the most direct beneficiaries of the extremely high first-day box office of "2012".

...

"Haha, it worked. With the first-day box office of 7210 million U.S. dollars, it will most likely surpass Avatar."

Han Sanping, who had arrived at the company early in the morning waiting for news, naturally got the first-hand information. At this moment, he was so excited that he almost hugged Gu Wei and kissed him. Of course, this scene was a little hard to imagine.

“The domestic premiere must also be a grand event. Not only that, but we must also find an opportunity to announce China Film’s share in ‘The Wandering Earth’. This is a definite political achievement.” Han Sanping stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back, muttering to himself.

On the other hand, after learning about the first-day performance of "2012", Ye Ning from Wanda Pictures also had a lot of discussions in the conference room.

"I don't need to say much about the film schedule. Those films that have no future will be taken off the screen as soon as possible, and we will focus on showing '2012'."

"Okay, Mr. Ye." As soon as Ye Ning finished speaking, the people below responded.

After all, Wanda also has investments, although the proportion is not large, but as long as this movie can break the global box office record, Wanda will be proud to be involved.

Just by thinking about it, Ye Ning knew how much profit it would bring to the company. Money was secondary, the key was reputation. After all, Wanda was well-known in the circle for having no shortage of money.

"Awesome! Breaking the global first-day box office record again!"

"Director Gu has gone down in history this time. He is truly the world's top commercial film director and the number one director in mainland China."

"What are you still waiting for with the first day box office? Hurry up and brag about it."

"It's so scary. Converted into RMB, the first day's box office is equivalent to 400 to 500 million yuan. The box office for one day is almost equivalent to a movie called "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate."

"Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate": Are you polite?
As soon as the news from Hollywood reached China, audiences expressed their opinions in major forums and reporters rushed to write reports.

“2012 is a visual feast for moviegoers around the world.”

"The 3D movie '2012' is a movie that can rival 'Avatar'."

"2012, your first 3Dimax movie ticket in your life, don't miss it."

"According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hua Xia becomes the savior hero in 2012."

News media and reporters are writing down their various feelings after watching the movie, which attracts people who have not watched the movie.

Especially those netizens who have not seen the movie are so attracted that they can't help but want to watch it.

...

(End of this chapter)